We’ve all been there. The traffic police officer demands your driving license and vehicle registration documents, and you’re unable to provide due to some reason. Fortunately, in a move towards digitizing official records, Indian government today updated their Android app – DigiLocker which now lets users upload soft copies of their driving licenses and vehicle registration papers, in addition to Aadhaar card, PAN card etc.

DigiLocker is merely a secure digital cloud storage where any “Aadhaar” card (Unique Identification Authority of India) holder can sign up using their phone number and avail the free 1GB of space. Starting right away, citizens can sync their essential documents including driving license, certificates, PAN card, vehicle registration papers, voter ID card, and more. Although, the ability to add driving license and vehicle documents are new, as the app otherwise has been in existence for over a year. The uploaded files will be directly verified by traffic police and other law enforcement agencies.

To get started, download the DigiLocker app and request an OTA by hitting the “sign up” option. It will also require your Aadhaar card’s barcode for unique authentication. However, a majority of users including me are facing trouble receiving the SMS, so it might take a day or two for the app to function properly. After all, it is going to be downloaded concurrently by millions of Indians. Furthermore, the respective officials will also operate an app for verifying the documents with the National Register of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Additionally, the initiative isn’t yet rolled out in all the states, hence until confirmation, keep the physical copies handy.

The nationwide use of a single application will also allow the traffic officials to issue fines and maintain centralized copies of automobile registrations and other soft copies of documents. The application already has over 2 Million users and with the inclusion of driving license verification, we’re quite sure Digilocker will significantly boost India’s progress towards being a digital country.

Shubham is based out of Ahmedabad, India and is studying to be a Computer Engineer, while specializing in mobile applications. He loves covering what's new in the smartphone space and aims to make it his primary profession some day.